Sicky icky!!!

This last week for me was NUTSO!!!! About a week and a half ago, I got what I thought was a cold or allergies. Nothing big, just enough to feel blahhhh. The days went on and it got worse, really fast! Friday, I just laid on my couch, feeling like I was going to die. Then Saturday morning, I knew I needed to get into the doctor. Harper hadn't been feeling well, so I should have taken her too, but I was going by myself and I simply didn't have the energy to take her. So off I went. I got to Instacare and got taken right in. He checked me for stuff and made me step on the scale that is about 150 lbs off. Diagnosis? Bronchitis! He sent me home with an anti-biotic for the sinus end of it (the bronchitis itself is viral, so no meds will cure it faster), an inhaler and some nasty cough syrup.

Saturday came and went. Honestly, I don't remember anything. I slept the entire day. Sunday came and went. The only stuff I remember from that day was what I would find out later were only hallucinations. It didn't even happen!!! I was running a 103 degree fever for those 3 days and it was pretty hard to even break it. It was a good one!!!

Monday was crappy, Tuesday was crappy, Wednesday I went back to the doctor because the cough got really bad, really fast. It kinda freaked me out. Diagnosis: still bronchitis. He sent me home with better cough syrup and a better inhaler.

Thursday, ok. Friday getting better. Still sleeping for the most part. Saturday was better even more, still sleeping A LOT and then today, I feel like a whole new woman!!!! YEA!!!!! It's so nice to have enough energy to walk across my house without feeling like I'm dying!!!

Tomorrow is a new day and I will be able to do some of the things that have been neglected the last week. I was pretty strict with staying in my house so I didn't pass it on to anyone else. I got pretty antsy as the week progressed, so tomorrow is going to be great to be able to do STUFF!!!!!

Randy was such a rock star. Working, coming home to a whiny wife and needy 1 year old. He cooked and cleaned. Did laundry, homework and lots of other things. I had meals brought over from Gina, my mom and Randy's mom. What a blessing. My kids were sick of cereal for dinner!!!

But be warned... I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! (but I will miss my snuggle time with my favorite baby!!!)

A call about Tyler

Yesterday, I got a call from Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City. That is where Tyler was treated both times for his congenital diaphragmatic hernia. When he was born, he was there in the NICU for 28 days and then at 4 1/2 months we were back up there for 2 weeks when his diaphragm re-herniated.

Well, I get this call from the hospital and they want to follow up with Tyler. They are doing a survey and checking up on ALL of the patients that had their diaphragms repaired at Primary Children's. I had to ask, how many kids are you following up on?

*200 diaphragms were repaired at PCMC in the last 10 years
*Tyler was one of the top 50 on the list of severity (the top 50 had less than half of a diaphragm. Tyler's was even a lot less than that, so if they were to categorize it down more, he would have been even more up to the top).

She wanted to know two long-term medical problems:

*If he has PECTUS. The answer to that is NO. He did when he was first born, but when he was between 1 and 2 years old, it straightened out. I only remember it because when I would nurse him, I would rub that little dip in his chest. It was about the size of a golf ball.

*If he has SCOLIOSIS, and he does not. He has shown no signs of it yet, so we're hoping we can stay on this good luck train and stay far away from scoliosis!!!

Then she asked what lasting medical problems he has.

*He has pretty bad reflux. It is completely controlled with an adult dose of medication (same dose his Grandpa Clyde is on right now! haha!)

*He has an extra rib on both sides (he could have made 2 Eves in the Garden of Eden if he was there!!!)

*He has EXTREMELY flat feet. (that could be related to CDH or it could be from the Campbell family. There are several of them that suffer from severe flat feet, including Randy's brother, Cory. So, who knows with that one!?!)

When I was done telling her those 3 things, she was ready for the next problem and I had none for her!!! It was GREAT!!!! I love telling people how good Tyler's health is. Medically speaking, he should not have lived, let alone be as healthy and active, independent and awesome as he is!!!

It's easy for us to forget what an amazing blessing we have in Tyler. He's just a normal kid to us! Unless you see the gigantic scar across his chest, you would never know anything was ever wrong with him. But we love it that way!!!!

A wonderful moment in our lives....

Back in August, we got an opportunity that I wondered if it would ever happen. Dawn Williamson, the founder of CHERUBS, had been to a CDH conference in San Fransisco and on her way home, had a 2 hour layover in Las Vegas. She put on her Facebook that if anyone was around, she would love to have lunch at the airport and meet!!!! I instantly started crying!!! Vegas is only 1 1/2 hours drive from our house! WE WERE IN!!!!!

We drove to Vegas and waited for Dawn's flight. And then I saw her, glowing like the angel she is!!! Please take a minute to read her story. It was a moment that I have no words to express how it felt. I have learned SO much from her and the CHERUBS support group. We were sisters in a club together, forever. Our lives took such a different path, but our hearts are connected. 

Then I got to introduce her to MY CHERUB, Tyler. Dawn is in regular conversations in our family, not just my little family, but the grandparents, aunts and uncles, everyone know who Dawn is and how important she is to us. She couldn't take her eyes off Tyler. Her son, Shane, did not survive CDH and that is why she works so hard for CHERUBS, so there is a place where people can go, get informed and not feel alone. This meeting was completely amazing to me and my children.

This is Jill, she lives in Vegas and has a son that is Harper's age with CDH. He's doing really good, too. I can't wait to meet up with her again and meet her little man!!!

Here we are, 3 moms that have gone through the same situation. We will always be bonded like others are not.

And then we were off. Lots of hugs. Lots of tears. Sometimes I didn't know what to say, but I didn't need to say anything at all. Dawn knew what was happening in my heart. I thanked her for doing so much hard and painful work that helped MY family, directly and benefited MY son, directly. There are no words that can express what she means to us. A true angel on Earth.

As we were on our way over to swim at my Aunt Vicky's house, Tyler said in a very somber voice, "mom, this has been the best day of my life". It was life changing for us!!!!

Blessings are all around us, sometimes it takes reflecting on how things have been to realize how blessed we are that we even survived!!!

So, I'm glad they are following up with the diaphragm repair patients! It was a good phone call!!!

Good bye my sister :(

This post originally was drafted in mid-July 2012......

My sister, Blanche is getting to have the opportunity for her husband to have a great job and I am so excited for her...... oh yea, except for that part that she has to move 4 hours away!!!!! That's right, my darling sister/partner in crime/twin separated by 14 years..... you get the point. We are SUPER CLOSE. This has been really hard for me, even though I know it's the best thing for their family. Last Friday we all converged on Blanche's house to move her. There was Amy and Dan that came up from Vegas. There were the Frehners from across the street. Brittney and Chuck. Randy and I. Blanche and Michael.  We got the 4 horse trailer loaded up, the big trailer, the small trailer, Randy's truck and the rest of the vehicles bulging at the doors with stuff!!! I snapped a few pictures of my sister in front of this house in Hurricane that she had spent the last 7 or so years in and we were off!!!!!

We stopped for a Coke and life was great!!! Looking a little like the Clampets!!!! But we were ready to go!!! Well, before Cedar, the horse trailer had blown a tire. After getting that one fixed, it wasn't long before it blew another tire!?! Chuck and us had kept going because there wasn't much we could do, but they were worried about the weight on the horse trailer, so Chuck loaded some of his load on us (pushing us to the absolute limits!!!) and he backtracked an hour to help out.

It ended up that Trina (the one with the horse trailer) stopped at a tire shop and the original 2 tires also needed to be replaced!?! We kept going, there was absolutely nothing we could do, so our goal was to get up to the new house and get the beds on the floor so everyone could sleep comfortably.


By the time everyone made it in, that 4 hour trip was almost 9 hours. It was a long day.

Time for bed. Blanche, Michael, Matthew, Karley, Randy, Me, Maddison, Harper, Brittney, Chuck, Odin, Liam, Cort, Amy Lynn, Dan, Bridger, Noah, Brandy, Mark and baby Skylar. That's 20 PEOPLE sleeping on my sister's floors!!! It was great!!!

Morning came early enough. Time to get to work! Our good friend, Jeff Moss lives up there and I begged him to come over and help. It was great to have him there and get to see him!!! It was about 10 straight hours of unloading, unpacking and assembling.

These are some of the little ditties I found when I was unpacking the books. If you know my sister, these books will not surprise you :)

We were POOPED!!!!! We took Maddison up with us to help with Harper and that was the best thing we did. She was able to keep her out of the way and let me work!!! It was so perfect.

The girls treated ourselves to a little trip to IKEA after all of our hard work and then we were OUT again for the night.

That night, Odin wanted  to come to dinner with us!!! 

It was so fun having him (such a big boy) have alone time with us!!!

The next morning, Amy and Dan left pretty early. They had to go from Springville to Vegas that day.... YIKES!!!! We stalled as long as we could. I unpacked a lot more things and started to clean up after the move so Blanche and Mike would have a normal house to live in right away.

And then it came...... time to say goodbye. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I instantly started crying like crazy. There is no way to help this feeling. I'm selfish. Nothing will soften the pain of this move, but it must be.

We said our goodbyes and got on the road. Right onto the freeway, we got into some pretty bad rain. It was off and on all the way home. I drove the big trailer home from Beaver!!! It was good. I cried really hard for about 2 hours. I'm going to miss her so absolutely much. It's hard to even put words into the relationship we have. But we can do this. We do hard things all the time.

This part really sucks, but we did it! On our way home, it rained like a DOG on us, but we made it home in one piece!!!

I have so much love and devotion to my sisters. I would have driven right back up if she had needed me. This is going to be good for them. I'm trying to be positive, but it's easier at times than others!!!!

I'm glad Blanche and Matt both got jobs and are doing good. We all have our boohoo moments, but it's getting easier!!!